Our dear friend, Bella (Dolly Goolsby) is on the go again, this time in Italy. She has graciously allowed us to republish her travel blogs. Enjoy!
As I promised, we had a new adventure yesterday. We took a train trip to the ancient town of Matera, which, by train, is 2 hours southwest and inland from Bari. I think I will have to write another blog just about travel…especially train travel! But more on that later.
Matera is a UNESCO world heritage site. It is reported to be one of the world’s oldest towns. In the hills that surround the town are natural grottoes (caves) that became homes for the people. In time, the people developed running canals to provide fresh water and take care of sewage. The first signs of human occupation in this town date back to Palaeolithic Age, confirmed by tests on a human skeleton, that dates back 250,000 years. Beyond belief!
The grottoes, or Sassi, were the home to most of the population of Matera, up until 1950\0x2032s, but the town around the Sassi started growing. the people began building stone structures around the grottoes, gradually enlarging the town into what is is today. There are stone churches dating back to the 8th C. A.D. The grottoes became more and more impoverished as the city grew around it, and finally the people were all removed from the grottoes into government housing projects, one of the greatest scandals of Italian history. In 1950, the infant mortality rate in the Sassi was 50%!
We walked from the train station down the hills, and around the piazze, until we were in the old, the poorest part of what had been the Sassi, the area called Caveoso. We could see the church, Madonna de Idris, one of the oldest churches, and actually carved out of the rock, like the Sassi homes.
There is so much history here. Each building or cave has its own story to tell. We visited the Church of San Pietro Caveoso. It was built near the end of the 14th century. The facade of the church faces the piazza, but the rest of the church is over a canyon, supported, of course, with stone supports. Inside the church is this marvelous painted wooden ceiling.
The day was very hot, so we couldn’t get to as many places as we would have liked, but we did get an overview, and we now know why the city of Matera is a favorite of movie directors. “The Passion of Christ”, starring Mel Gibson was filmed here in 2004. That is one of 30 that are listed in our guide book.
Finally, we had to give up and get on a train going back to Monopoli. It was a full, hot day and our senses were in overdrive.
the visit to Matera was very interesting, and I will try to learn more about the history of the city. It is hard to believe that so many people have lived here for so many centuries, when the terrain around the city is so uninviting: dry, hot, very little water. Most of the vegetation is olive trees, which don’t need very much water. But like every other city we have come to, in Italy, the Romans were also here, building cisterns, aqueducts, castles. Gotta love those Romans.
So, until next time, Ciao.
(My sources for most of the information here are Lonely Planet guide, and “The Sassi of Matera: Tourist Guide. )
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